Learn about our ethos, artistic practice and commitments to artists.

Our Ethos

How We Work

With care, collaboration and consideration.

With joyfulness and imagination throughout.

Responding and listening to need.

Two facilitators and two child participants taking part in a workshop; one girl is singing or speaking, another girl and a boy are listening, and the man is playing a keyboard.

Artistic Practice

Children’s voices at the heart

As a children’s charity, we believe that children and young people’s voices should shape the way we work and the decisions we make. We believe that having children’s voices in the creative process inspires the most meaningful and authentic art. Art that not only reflects their lives and worlds but also connects with them as audiences and participants.

Two young girls standing and talking together indoors.

Our artistic programme

Travelling Light’s artistic programme includes creating the best imaginative theatre for children, young people and families and participatory work that engages children and young people supporting their self-expression, creativity and imagination.

We value the artistic quality of both our professional productions and participatory work equally. We do not distinguish between the two in terms of care and quality.

As a storytelling company, we seek to find the best stories that are innovative, engaging and do not talk down to children and young people. We also believe that in order to create this work children’s voices must be championed and their involvement authentic in the making, designing and planning processes.

A young Black girl with dreadlocks smiling and holding her hands together, standing in front of an older white woman with short white hair, who is also smiling, inside a room with blue chairs in the background.

Taking time and care

We recognise that making great theatre takes time and care and we invest in Research and Development to try new ideas and find the best stories which resonate with our audiences. We want to go beyond involvement in a research and development workshop to enable young people to have a real and genuine input into the work we make and we invite them to challenge us and take our work in new directions.

A man playing a trombone to two young girls inside a room with large windows.

Testing new models of co-creation

We are excited to be pushing our practice further in ensuring that children and young people’s voices shape our work in a meaningful, authentic and equitable way. We are investing in research and development and play, to try and test new models of co-creation (making work together) with children and young people, and in collaborating with artists who share these aims.

Travelling Light Commitment to Artists

Travelling Light is committed to providing the best possible environment for the artists we work with. We approach all artists with the question, what can we do to help you thrive whilst employed with us?

What we strive to do:

Ask questions. Hold safe space for conversations. Be clear on how much assistance we can reasonably provide and be honest about our flexibility within each project.

What we ask of our artists:

We encourage people to be honest about their needs, so they feel comfortable and are able to do their best work. Feel confident to ask questions – Do you need time to attend an important health appointment? Would you need to leave rehearsal early to do the school run? Do you need reading materials in advance or in a different format? We encourage open conversations around access requirements and will do our best to incorporate requirements.

    • Listening and valuing an artist’s input through a collaborative approach to making work. 

    • A commitment to fair pay, in line with ITC/Equity guidance, and prompt payment of fees. 

    • Being clear on where intellectual property rights sit within work created collaboratively within contracts, giving due credit for creative endeavour

    • Supporting an artist’s caring responsibilities through means such as: flexible working hours, support with child care/caring costs where possible for freelancers, enabling bringing your child to work if viable.

For full details, download our PDF below.

Travelling Light Commitments to Artists (PDF, 0.1MB)

FAQ

  • Travelling Light does not have a pool of associate artists however we do offer care, support and professional development opportunities to all the artists, creatives and assistants who work with us.

  • Travelling Light is a devising company and we work with writers and dramaturgs to create a script collaboratively in the rehearsal room. Our starting point for a show, project or workshop might be a word or phrase, a book or a folk tale but never a script.

  • All of our open castings, staff vacancies and facilitator roles are displayed on the Jobs and Opportunities page of our website and Arts Jobs, amongst other listing sites.  

    If you are an artist who would like to work with us, you can join our freelance database and be the first to hear about opportunities by completing our Artist expression of interest form here. We are always looking for volunteers to support our work. Visit our Jobs and Opportunities page to find out more.

  • Work considered for our artistic programme comes to our attention in a variety of ways, including: research and development activity, festival performances, artist pitches and conversations with audiences and community/cultural partners.

  • We do not accept one-off requests for workshops promoting other opportunities or as part of an R&D within youth theatre hours. Our Youth Theatre has a set programme, and projects are planned months or years in advance. Themes and content of projects is largely led by participants themselves, with the support of professional creative teams.

    We sometimes share opportunities to attend additional scratch performances/engagement opportunities with our young people and their families, though we cannot guarantee participants’ attendance. Any additional opportunities should be sent to us with as much notice as possible for better chances of participation.